


Over a Long Distance, You Learn About the Strength of Your Horse

by apatternedfever



Category: Firefly
Genre: Character Study, Double Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-25
Updated: 2010-08-25
Packaged: 2017-10-11 06:18:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/109348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apatternedfever/pseuds/apatternedfever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zoe's first judgments never turn out to be true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Over a Long Distance, You Learn About the Strength of Your Horse

**Author's Note:**

> Written for an alphabet drabble prompt, **M**istake.
> 
> The title is inspired by a Chinese proverb (or what googlesearching tells me is a Chinese proverb, so if I'm wrong on the wording it's my own fault), which in full runs: _Over a long distance, you learn about the strength of your horse; over a long period of time, you get to know what's in a person's heart._

What it comes down to is, Zoe's terrible at first impressions.

First time she saw Mal, she thought he was another boy who was gonna get himself and someone else killed. Granted, she was too far off to realize he wasn't a private, but even once she found out, she didn't think he had the fight in him. Proved her wrong the first fight they were in. He saved her life.

And Wash, well, she didn't even like to talk about meeting Wash. She couldn't count the number of times she talked to Mal about firing him those first few weeks. Wash liked to tease her about that; says she liked him so much it made her uncomfortable. She'll play along, but they both know it's not true.

At least there was some reason to believe Jayne'd run off first time he didn't like Mal's orders, and take whatever he could grab to boot. They got him on easy enough; wouldn't take much more to get him off, she reasoned. She's not sure if Mal saw something in him that she missed or if Jayne surprised them all. Maybe she wouldn't trust him with her life, but she trusts him not to leave in the middle of a job, and that's close enough to the same thing most of the time.

Mistakes in a fight can kill you, and Zoe's never made a mistake with a weapon. But people? Well, that's a whole different story.


End file.
